Weekend Wrap-Up - AKA Incredible Appreciation

I've been a bit overwhelmed with my move, and work has been quite busy, so my blogs (especially the other one) have been suffering for it. Things will hopefully quiet down soon, but for now, between unpacking, and an upcoming trip to Alabama, I think my plate is going to be a bit full. Which is fine, because I like being busy. I wanted to write briefly about the Beyond BT Shabbaton, because I really enjoyed myself. A full recap is here, but I just want to add my two cents. It was really fun putting faces to all the writing and comments, and e-mails, that I have seen over the past several months. Special thanks to Ezzie (I'm outing myself here, but thanks Ezzie for attempting to secure any anonymity that I have left), his wife Serach and their beautiful baby Elianna for hosting me for the Friday night meal, and introducing me to their friends, who were really nice. They made me feel totally at home, and we managed to successfully play Jewish geography throughout the weekend, including mentions of various bloggers, which is a whole new level of Jewish geography. Mark and David, and their families, put in an amazing amount of effort to pull off a beautiful Shabbos day. What I found so amazing about the whole weekend was the incredible friendliness of everyone there. I think the word achdus really defined the weekend. I had several people offer to host me for Shabbos in various neighborhoods if I ever desire, so I guess I have some more Shabbos travelling to do in the future. The whole Shabbos was just really laid-back and nice, and everyone was obviously really there for the purpose of being real and building a community together - no judgments, no sizing each other up, just being a whole. I unfortunately didn't get to stay at the melave malka for long, because I had a lot of packing to do for my move the next morning, but the fact that so many people came together to make music together. Special thanks to the Kew Garden Hills community in general, not just those on the Shabbaton, for housing participants and being friendly the entire weekend. Sunday was my big move. I moved into an attic, which is no fun. I don't think I'm ever leaving, or at least, not with my stuff. There were tears involved only once, which is pretty good for a move, which is just a stressful event no matter what. I have such incredible gratitude to the four people who helped me move - they didn't even let me help with any of my heavy things, and made it 10 billion times easier. And the whole time, there was no whining, or complaining or giving up. The attitudes were amazing, and I honestly don't know how to thank them enough. I absolutely could not have done it on my own, and I feel incredibly lucky to have such generous people in my life. And I'm glad it's over. That's my wrap-up of quite an eventful weekend.